'Words are cheap' - Paul Scholes claims Man Utd have become a 'begging' club under Sir Jim Ratcliffe as club legend questions new £2bn stadium plans

United announced ambitious plans to construct a new state-of-the-art 100,000-capacity stadium last week, which Ratcliffe hopes can be "the world’s greatest" football venue. The project, estimated to cost £2 billion, is expected to take at least five years to complete. INEOS chairman Ratcliffe is leading the charge for the massive infrastructure overhaul on the back of implementing a string of unpopular cost-cutting measures at the club.

Despite the British billionaire's efforts to bring changes at United, which is set to include the sale of several first-team players this summer, club legend Paul Scholes is not yet buying into the big promises. The former England star feels the Red Devils have been reduced to "begging" under the INEOS regime, and has suggested the new stadium project might not be "realistic".

Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet, Scholes said: "You can be gullible at times, and believe what he [Sir Jim Ratcliffe] says, just because you’ve never heard anyone say anything before. You don’t know how realistic it is, it’s all up in the air.

"Words are cheap, and we could say anything about anyone, you can say in 10 years we’ll have the biggest and best stadium. For a long time, we’ve been called the richest club in the world, but I feel like we’re begging a little, asking for the stadium and that we need £2 billion, and selling players to buy players."

Ruben Amorim's United side will be back in action after the international break as they take on Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on April 1. The Red Devils are languishing down in 13th in the table, but are unbeaten in their last four games across all competitions and still have the Europa League to play for.